Thepes recognized the wrong movement in the blood above Alex's hand.
Each uneven pulse pressed against the next before it finished. The power tried to hold together, failed, then gathered along the same damaged path again.
He had felt something like that inside his own body.
When Lolth pulled through him, the strength he took from her had caught against the blood feeding his core. For a short time, both had moved as he wanted. Then her will had pulled the joined parts in different directions.
Thepes looked at the thin flesh covering his right arm. He still hadn't recovered what she had taken.
"Stop pushing the clear part," he said.
Alex turned toward him.
Thepes tried to point with his left hand. The fingers were still short and crooked; growing them back had consumed blood he needed elsewhere. He settled for turning the unfinished wrist against the ice and paid for that with a sharp stab of pain.
"That one. Every time you follow it, the part beside it folds over."
